WASHINGTON — Today, Representative Ronny Jackson (TX-13), a member of the House Armed Services Committee, delivered the following remarks on the House Floor in support of his amendment to the Fiscal Year 2024 National Defense Authorization Act. Jackson’s amendment would repeal the Department of Defense’s illegal and immoral abortion policy and prohibit any similar policies from being enacted in the future. The text of Jackson’s amendment can be found here.
Rep. Jackson’s remarks as prepared for delivery:
“On behalf of myself, my fellow Texan Chip Roy, and over 70 cosponsors, I urge all of my colleagues to vote in strong support of my amendment to repeal the Department of Defense’s illegal and immoral abortion policy.
In the wake of the Supreme Court’s historic Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade, the Biden administration immediately set out to sidestep the Court’s ruling and circumvent the law wherever possible.
The Biden administration has encouraged every federal agency to create rules and adopt policies that not only expand abortion access but also leave American taxpayers on the hook to subsidize abortion services.
As evidence of this, in October of last year, the Secretary of Defense released a memo entitled, “Ensuring Access to Reproductive Health Care.”
This memo outlined the steps to be taken by the Department in order to use taxpayer dollars to provide servicemembers and their dependents access to abortions and allows for taxpayer dollars to be used so that healthcare providers can obtain the licensing required to perform such procedures.
According to its illegal policy, which is now in place, DoD can and will reimburse travel expenses for servicemembers and their dependents who travel, specifically, to obtain an abortion in another state.
DoD will also reimburse any associated fees for healthcare professionals seeking to be licensed in another state for purposes of performing abortions – all on the taxpayer’s dime!
Last year, immediately after DoD started this unconstitutional and illegal process, Congressman Roy and I got to work on addressing this issue and developed a bill to right this wrong.
This illegal Biden-endorsed policy has no place in our military.
Taxpayer money provided to DoD is intended to provide for our national defense and our national security, not to promote and support the Biden administration’s radical and immoral pro-abortion agenda.
And, as mentioned, regardless of your political or personal stance on abortion, this policy is in direct violation of federal law, specifically, Section 1093 of U.S. Code Title 10, which restricts funds made available to the DoD from being used for abortions.
No doubt my colleagues on the other side of the aisle will insist that taxpayer dollars are not directly funding abortions, thereby rendering the current policy legally sound.
This is an absolutely misleading claim – this taxpayer money is going directly to support abortions, and anyone in this chamber that says differently is blatantly lying to the American people!
Taxpayer funding of travel for an abortion is in fact taxpayer-funded abortion.
Abortion is the sole reason for these travel expenses, and this is in clear violation of existing law.
My Democrat colleagues want to blame me, Senator Tuberville, and my colleagues like Congressman Roy, for jeopardizing readiness, however, it is the Biden administration who has sidestepped existing law and given the Department permission to take this illegal action.
This has left us with no choice but to take corrective measures and pass additional legislation.
The days of the radical left ignoring the law and pushing their destructive social agenda in the military are done.
I absolutely will not waiver in my defense of the rule of law, therefore ensuring that taxpayer money is not used to kill innocent babies and in doing so, also ensure that our military service members can focus on their jobs and their families instead of being used for the political gain of the Biden administration.
This amendment has over 70 cosponsors because we all recognize that the Department of Defense is carrying out an illegal policy that is divisive, immoral, and does nothing to provide for our national defense or promote our national security.
I want to thank my friend, Congressman Chip Roy, for co-leading this amendment with me and for being a relentless defender of the law and a true warrior in protecting the life of the unborn.
I also want to thank the Military Personnel Subcommittee Chairman, Jim Banks, for his support of my amendment and his work on readying our servicemembers for the real threats that they face.
Last, I want to thank Chairman Rogers for creating the strongest defense bill I have seen during my time in Congress.
I strongly urge my colleagues to support this amendment to repeal this outrageous and illegal policy and prevent any similar policy in the future.”
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